A group of drunken "young adults" heavily damaged a steel turnstile during a party at the Lafayette Courts public housing complex early Friday, the head of the city Housing Authority police said yesterday."

Vandals shot out the windows of 60 cars Sunday morning in Brooklyn Park, and police are asking for the public's help in finding the vandals, the commander of the department's Northern District said yesterday."

County police are investigating several incidents of break-ins and vandalism of cars Sunday in the Canbury Woods neighborhood of Elkridge.Police reported seven complaints of tampering, thefts from, or destruction of vehicles between 7:15 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday by residents on Fairbourne Court.A resident of nearby Augustine Avenue also reported a theft from a vehicle Sunday, police said.One neighbor said he heard that at least 18 vehicles were damaged. Some people might not have filed complaints, police said.

Councilman Kenneth Green, sitting in for Mayor James C. Carlisle, who was on his way back from Florida, presided over last night's New Windsor Town Council meeting as residents complained about vandals.The council, residents and the town's part-time state trooper agreed they are fed up with the increasing petty crimes and destruction of property.Dr. John Goettee, a local dentist, spoke to the council about incidents on his property."I have been here 31 years and I have seen nothing in that time like I am seeing now," he said.

Vandals damaged or destroyed at least 12 tombstones in two Westminster cemeteries after the city celebrated Memorial Day on Monday.Five tombstones in St. John's Cemetery, behind the main branch of the library on East Main Street, were overturned during the weekend, according to city police.The stones, some of them broken, were discovered by a neighbor when she went to the cemetery Tuesday morning to pick up trash and feed the birds as is her daily practice.The other seven markers were found vandalized in the Westminster Cemetery, off Church Street.

Vandals painted the town blue Wednesday, leaving Westminster police perplexed.Reports that about a dozen mailboxes and road signs had been sprayed with blue paint from Village of the Greens to Western Maryland College were called into police headquarters between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., Lt. Dean Brewer, a police spokesman, said yesterday.Since April 1, Westminster police have investigated about 20 cases of vandalism, including malicious destruction of property, intentional damage to vehicles and thefts from unlocked cars.

Not long ago, these houses were the proudest on their blocks, a cornerstone of Baltimore's renaissance in its poorest neighborhoods.The 2,800 newly renovated rowhouses were scattered throughout the inner city. They were supposed to be new homes for public-housing tenants.Today, 22 years after the first houses were rehabilitated, about 300 of them stand battered and vacant, many stripped by vandals, without doors or windows to protect what little is left inside. Once the nicest houses on the block, they are now eyesores.

Nearly $4 million in expansion, reconstruction and renovations at the Mechanicsville Elementary School in Carroll County was almost complete, until vandals tore through the building over the weekend, hurling cans of paint into the air to burst open upon impact, according to state police.Construction workers discovered the extensive damage when they arrived for work yesterday at the sprawling, one-story school on Route 32 in Gamber.Police reported that at least a dozen one-gallon paint cans had been taken from a locked storage room off the gym.They apparently had been thrown into the air, leaving small marks on overhead beams.

In the last six months, vandals have struck five Conowingo Power Co. facilities in northeastern Harford, causing thousands of dollars in damage and temporary outages of electrical services.The vandals also pose a threat to the environment: The damaged equipment contains mineral oil that could contaminate soil and ground water if it leaks.To prevent further damage, the Harford County Crime Solvers group is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the vandals.